Keisuke Wakao is the assistant principal oboe of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the principal oboe of the Boston Pops Orchestra. He was formerly a member of the New World Symphony, which he joined in its inaugural season. He made his debut CD with pianist Christoph Eschenbach under the Dennon label. Mr. Wakao studied with Joseph Robinson at the Manhattan School where he served on the faculty following his graduation. He is currently on the faculty of both the New England Conservatory of Music and the Longy School of Music. Mr. Wakao started the Keisuke Wakao Oboe Camp in Tokyo and is presently director of the Daikanyama Hillside Terrace Music Festival, founder of the Church of the Redeemer Concert Series, and sponsor of the American-Japanese Cultural Concert Series.

Thomas Martin joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops in 1984. Through his association with both orchestras, Mr. Martin has toured throughout the world and has worked with most of its leading conductors, soloists, and entertainers. As a soloist he has often been a featured artist on the PBS television program Evening at Pops. Most recently Mr. Martin performed Elliot Carter's Clarinet Concerto as part of Mr. Carter's 100th birthday celebration at the 2008 Tanglewood Music Festival. Currently, Sir André Previn is composing a clarinet sonata for Mr. Martin. It's premier is expected in the spring of 2010.

Eli Epstein joined the Cleveland Orchestra in 1987, and became Horn Instructor at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1989. He has appeared as soloist with both the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras. He has performed at Tanglewood, Philadelphias Academy of Music, and the Kennedy Center, and can be heard on Telarc, Teldec, London/Decca, and Deutsche Grammaphon recordings. Mr. Epstein is on the faculties of The Boston Conservatory, the Music Academy of the West, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. He is Principal Horn of the Aspen Chamber Symphony and Guest Principal Horn of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He performs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and works with the BSO Educational Department on special projects.

Kazusa Mizutani was born in Kyoto and began playing the bassoon at the age of sixteen. In 1987, he graduated from the Kyoto City University of Arts. He went overseas the same year to study at Hochschule für Musik Detmold (the Detmold School of Music) with a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In 1990, he graduated at the top of his class studying under Helman Jung. Following the Deutche Oper am Reihn (German Opera House) (1989-) and the Gunma Symphony Orchestra (1993-), Kazusa joined the NHK Symphony Orchestra in 2000 playing first bassoon. In addition to being active in a variety of music festivals and chamber concerts, he performs as soloist at concertos by the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gunma Symphony Orchestra. He also teaches younger musicians at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and the Tokyo College of Music.

Yasushi Toyoshima studied the violin under Toshiya Eto and Angela Eto at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. At the age of twenty-two, he was appointed principal concertmaster for the New Japan Philharmonic. He also serves as the concertmaster of the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra and the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra. He has worked with some of the worlds top artists including Isaac Stern and Yo-Yo Ma. Mr. Toyoshima was the recipient of the Muramatsu Prize, the first Idemitsu Prize, and the Cultural and Education Ministry's New Artist of the Year Award. He also lectures at Toho Gakuin University and Graduate School. He is the Music Director of the Nagasaki Chamber Music Festival and plays a 1719 Antonio Stradivarius.

Roger Tapping was a member of the Takács Quartet for ten years from 1995, performing Beethoven and Bartok Cycles in the world's major cities. Their recordings for DECCA/London, including the complete Bartok and Beethoven quartets, won many international awards including a Grammy, three Gramophone Awards and 3 Japan Record Academy Chamber Music Awards. In London, Tapping played in the Allegri Quartet. He performs as a recitalist and chamber musician, making frequent guest appearances with quartets from the USA and Europe. He teaches Viola and Chamber Music at NEC, Longy and the Boston Conservatory, and he is on the faculty of the Banff, Yellow Barn, Perlman and Tanglewood summer festivals.

Since joining the Borromeo String Quartet in 2000, Mai Motobuchi has performed over 900 concerts on four continents. As a member of the quartet, Ms. Motobuchi has been awarded the Martin E. Segal Award and the Avery Fisher Career Grant from Lincoln Center as well as the St. Botolph Award. Born in Tokyo, Ms. Motobuchi gained recognition in Japan as first prizewinner in the 1989 All Japan MBS Youth Music Competition, and in the 1991 All Japan Ensemble Competition. In the United States, she won the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (Junior Division) and the Henri Kohn Memorial Award from the Tanglewood Music Center. She serves on the faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music, Taos School of Music and Tenri Institute of Music in Japan.

Romanian-born cellist Mihail Jojatu joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2001. Mr. Jojatu studied at the Bucharest Academy of Music before attending the Boston Conservatory of Music, where he studied with former BSO cellist Ronald Feldman. Through Boston University, he also studied with BSO principal cellist Jules Eskin. A winner of the concerto competition at Boston University School for the Arts, he also won first prize in the Aria Concerto Competition at the Boston Conservatory and was awarded the Carl Zeise Memorial Prize in his second year as a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow. A faculty member at the Longy School of Music, Mihail Jojatu is also a member of the Triptych String Trio.

Mr. Barker graduated with honors from the New England Conservatory in 1976, where he studied doublebass with Henry Portnoi. That same year, while a member of the Chicago Symphony, he was appointed at age 22 to the position of principal bassist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Recognized as one of the most gifted bassists in America, Mr. Barker has performed and recorded with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and with Collage, a Boston -based contemporary music ensemble. Mr. Barker is an Associate Professor at the Boston University College of Fine Arts and is affiliated with the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland and the Tanglewood Music Center, where he is Chairman of Instrumental and Orchestral Studies.

Hugh Hinton has performed widely as a chamber musician and recitalist, including concerts throughout the Middle East. He has performed at Tanglewood and Monadnock summer music festivals and at the Gardner Museum in Boston and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. His recordings can be found on the Etcetera, CRI, Albany, and Newport Classics labels. Mr. Hinton earned his Bachelors degree from Harvard University and Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from New England Conservatory. A committed teacher, Mr. Hinton has taught music history at New England Conservatory and currently serves as instructor of piano at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. He has been a member of the CORE Ensemble since its founding in 1993.

Pianist Edmund Arkus has performed for many years in the United States, Japan and England to high acclaim. He has been presented in solo recitals, as soloist with orchestras, and in chamber music. He has had the opportunity to perform for ten years with oboist, Keisuke Wakao, in Boston, the Berkshires, and Japan. During that time, Mr. Arkus also performed in several chamber music festivals in Japan with members of the Orchestre de Paris, NHK Orchestra of Tokyo, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony. In June of 2008, Edmund Arkus was presented in solo and chamber music recitals in Ogaki and Tokyo including a performance of Beethovens First Piano Concerto with the Ogaki Chamber Orchestra.